Soc. of Deviance

Catalog description

This course is concerned with the social construction of social deviance as well as the forces that construct, change, and control forms of deviance in society. We will examine various topics from contemporary and historical contexts, including but not limited to crime, delinquency, drug use and abuse, sexual and relationship deviance, social protest and political deviance, cults and religious deviance, and all sorts of counter-cultural social thought, movements and action. Students will learn how to apply and evaluate research methods used by social scientists to study deviance. In addition, students will learn how to evaluate forms of deviance with various sociological theories such as anomie/strain theory, differential association, labeling constructivist perspectives, and conflict and control theories.